Loving loft living

By Brandy HilboldtTimes-Union home and garden editor,

You could roller skate in Stephen Dare's living room.

That's the first thing that comes to mind when you get to the top of the stairs and see the expanse of shiny wooden floor in the heart of his 10,000-square-foot loft. Then you want to shout -- see if it echoes off the far wall.

What a place for a party.

You can just imagine hundreds of people. Some dancing in the vast space, others lingering around the perimeter of the room, holding glasses and cocktail napkins, making small talk and studying Dare's eclectic collection of art, which is meticulously arranged on the abundant wall space, creating the feel of a gallery.

"I can walk almost everywhere. I only fill up my car with gas about once a month." - John Forsythe

He shares his Ocean Street loft with his daughter, Carissa.

-- Crista Jeremiason/Staff

Dare and his three roommates, Damon Lutton, Rick Benton and Jason Grimes, have rented the loft since December, often have parties, inviting artists to hang work in the cavernous main room. This month, Dare also invited a couple hundred people to drop by and watch a modern dance performance by six Jacksonville dancers in a fledgling company called Dance Composers Umbrella.

Dare and his friends fit the profile of most people who live in lofts -- young (18 to 35), single and interested in a highly active social life, said Sally Suslak, manager of the Park Street office of Atkinson & Knight Realty Group.

Suslak has worked in real estate for 23 years, and in the last two years, she has seen a surge in interest in downtown living, which she attributes to the Jaguars football team.

"More people than ever are going downtown, and I think they are starting to see what architectural treasures we have," she said.

"The great thing about the loft is that it's so big, you can have a ton of people over, and it never feels crowded." - Damon Lutton

He shares this loft with roommates Rick Benton, Jason Grimes and Stephen Dare.

Larry Wilson, a Jacksonville interior designer who owns Larry Wilson Design Associates, said he thinks the interest in living downtown coincides with the recent influx of newcomers to Jacksonville.

"The word is out with developers and contractors, people are dying for downtown living," he said. "It's a decidedly hip, urban lifestyle . . . and people coming to town from cities like Baltimore, San Diego and San Francisco are used to having lofts or downtown apartments, so they expect to find places like that here."

There's also the usual reason for any trend: talk. It generates interest, and rehabbing downtown is a hot civic topic. Part of Mayor John Delaney's Better Jacksonville Plan focuses on revitalizing downtown by improving public facilities such as the Coliseum and the library, and that could lead to more people looking for housing in the core city.

"I want a salon-like atmosphere," Dare said, explaining why he chose to live in a loft. "An intimate environment where people can learn about and experience art, mingle with artists . . . if you live in the suburbs, you miss the energy of people downtown."

Dare's image is relfected in a mirror.

-- Crista Jeremiason/Staff

Obviously, Dare's philosophy of get-togethers doesn't center on backyard barbecues, so living in a loft on West Duval Street works for him. It's within walking distance of the Florida Theatre, the Ritz Theater, the Florida Ballet and the St. Johns River City Band offices, which allows Dare to immerse himself in the creative milieu he loves.

Besides being a great place to entertain, the loft meets all the other housing needs of Dare and his roommates.

"The great thing about the loft is that it's so big, you can have a ton of people over, and it never feels crowded," said Dare's roommate Lutton. "Plus, if there are people in the living room, and you don't feel like hanging out, you can just go into your bedroom, and you feel like you're totally away from everything."

Though most of the loft doesn't have interior walls, a few still stand to keep the bathroom and four bedrooms private.

John Forsythe, at his desk in his downtown loft. The brick wall features various hand-painted advertisements, including ones for Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch. Forsythe discovered the perfectly preserved ads when he stripped the wall of its lath and plaster coating.

-- Crista Jeremiason/Staff

Dare publishes an entertainment-lifestyle magazine on the Web called Goliath, and he telecommutes to manage the administrative and business operations of a law firm in Muncie, Ind. His desk and computer equipment are in a corner of a large room that also serves as his bedroom. Area rugs and different colored walls delineate the space -- purple walls for the work area, red and yellow for the bed area.

There aren't any closets, but open shelving and armoires work fine for clothing. Floor-to-ceiling cabinets hold Dare's books, which range from classics to comics. Window ledges hold hundreds of CDs, a collection of lava lamps, some toy cars and Star Wars action figures in their original packages.

The common areas of the loft, including the kitchen and adjacent sitting area where the TV is, reflect typical loft decor: bold colors and industrial-looking materials. The eating bar in the kitchen has stainless steel stools topped with leatherette seats, a la 1950s diners. The side of the bar is painted flamingo pink and accented with one wavy black stripe.

Pots and pans hang on the walls, making minimal counter and cabinet space a non-issue. Boxes of pasta and jars of sauce visible in doorless cabinets contribute creamy yellow and tomato red to the riot of hues that makes the vast loft seem cozy.

Many advantages

John Forsythe is another renter who prefers living in a loft on Ocean Street to living in a house or an apartment.

The space fronting West Duval Street in Stephen Dare's loft serves as both an office and bedroom.

-- Crista Jeremiason/Staff

"I don't have to mow," he said. "I have allergies; I don't like grass."

Forsythe mentions numerous other advantages:

"No pesky neighbors. I can turn my music up as loud as I want. Who's going to hear it? I could have a party and invite 2,000 people if I want."

"I can walk almost everywhere. I only fill up my car with gas about once a month."

"The Jacksonville skyline is something else. I gotta hand it to the city on that one. When the moon is full, I can see it reflected off the Modis building."

His cats, Big Foot, Kitty and Naomi, enjoy the loft as much as he does. They lounge on the couch in the sunlight streaming through the industrial-sized windows in the living room/office of the L-shaped loft. They chase tiny balls down the wide hallway past Forsythe's weight-lifting equipment.

Forsythe, who owns two Internet-related businesses, Advanced Web Service and Crush Network Inc., has lived in the loft for two years. Recently, his 14-year-old daughter, Carissa, moved in with him. The location of the loft appeals to her, too, mainly because it's near The Jacksonville Landing and the library, where she likes to hang out with friends.

Forsythe runs his businesses from home, so after driving his daughter to school, he's in the loft for most of the day. He loves such downtown lunch spots as Cactus Grill, Worman's and Happy Chef.

By about 4 in the afternoon, it starts to get hot in the loft, because it doesn't have central air-conditioning. A jumbo-sized fan and two window units make the temperature bearable.

There are two walls in the loft. One separates the kitchen area from the two bedrooms. The other is the wall between the two bedrooms.

"If it were up to me, the whole loft would be open . . . when you've got raw space, the only limits are your imagination," Forsythe said. "But I'm a single father . . . and 14-year-old girls need their privacy."